


Space Cowboy

by katrinawritesthings



Category: SHINee
Genre: Brotp, Fantasy, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-21 04:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10677549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: where minho is a space cowboy on his space farm with his space cows ((doing his dibidarned space best)) and jonghyun rides out of the sun to meet him“How’d you get Earth cows all the way out here?” Jonghyun asks incredulously.tumblr





	Space Cowboy

The sun sets in the south, another rises in the west, and a moon or four float up above the little asteroid belt that Minho likes to call home. He leans back to rest his elbows on his metal-painted-to-look-like-wood fence and looks out at the sky from under the wide brim of his hat. Yep. Looks like it’s gonna continue to be a hot one. He takes a long drag of air through his straw-shaped oxygen straw before pushing himself up straight with the kind of relaxed grunt that comes from a long day of satisfying work. **  
**

He turns to give his space cattle one last glance over. They all seem fine; lounging, grazing on the space grass, mooing contentedly. Minho nods to himself and opens up the control panel on the fence. He sets the conditions, refreshes the alarm, and starts the gentle music, but before he can close up the dome for the night, something in the sky catches his eye.

It’s a dark silhouette against the sunrise, growing steadily larger as it comes towards his farm. Minho hums. He takes pretty kindly to strangers around these parts. As the figure draws even nearer, it starts to take shape and sound starts to reach him. Looks like a space motorcycle. Sounds like one, too. A lone space rider.

Minho taps the close button, then turns while the dome is rising to watch the biker soar in front of a trail of neon blue rocket fire, follows their path onto the asteroid, over the cattle, and all the way down to the dusty driveway between the pasture and the house. There, they cut the rockets down to just blue sputters from the exhaust and putt themself to a stop right in front of Minho.

They turn their bike off, straighten their bulky leather jacket, pop the release of their helmet, and lift it off to reveal soft brown eyes under shimmering blue hair. It’s pushed back from their forehead by a dark band that lets it spike up softly in the back. They look Minho up and down for a moment as Minho takes in their countless ear and eyebrow piercings and the thick black lines tattooed onto the tan skin of their cheekbones. A thin oxygen tube running from their studded facemask to the bike lets Minho assume that they’re human too.

“Howdy. Can I help you?” he asks politely. They fluff their fingers through the back of their hair for a moment with a helpless kind of shrug.

“Uh, orders: one: location,” they say clearly, and then, “Two: directions to nearest rest stop. Three: Directions from there to nearest restaurant. Or, actually,” they wave their hand with a grimace. “Cancel order three. I’ll figure this out one step at a time.” They mumble that last bit to themself and Minho frowns. Something… is off here.

“I’m not…,” he says slowly. “I don’t. Like--”

“You’re not an android?” they ask. Their eyes go wide and Minho sees pink blushing their cheeks for half a second before they bring gloved hands up to cover them. “Oh my god--I’m so fucking sorry, holy shit.” They clamber off of their bike and reach for Minho’s hand to hold in both of theirs. “God, fuck--I’m really really sorry,” they repeat. “You just--I just--I’m Jonghyun. He pronouns, from Earth outpost number three, but I haven’t been there in years.”

“Uh… huh,” Minho says. Number three, huh. This Jonghyun is _way_ far away from his home galaxy. “I’m Minho,” he says. “He also, from Kerwan.” He points vaguely in the direction of his home planet. “This is the Thran asteroid belt we’re on.” Jonghyun nods in understanding, then pauses and squints at him in disbelief.

“ _Kerwan?_ ” he asks. “Isn’t that in the Solana galaxy?”

“Um. Yes…?” Minho says. “That’s… where we are.”

“What the _fuck_ ,” Jonghyun says. He puts his hands on his hips and frowns down at the ground. “How the fuck did I get to _Solana_?” He looks back up at Minho like he expects Minho to know how he got himself so lost; Minho shrugs with a hum.

“Why’d you think I was a droid?” he asks, changing the subject. That pink comes minutely back to Jonghyun’s cheeks again and he shrugs weakly.

“I mean,” he says. “Where’s your oxygen?” He gestures at Minho’s general appearance; Minho smiles, takes a breath, and takes his wheat straw out of his mouth. He shows Jonghyun how it’s actually a tube, connected to the strings of his cowboy hat, and then puts it back in. Jonghyun still looks contused. “Where’s the tank?” he asks, voice rising in pitch as his face scrunches. Minho grabs the top of his hat and lifts it up just enough for Jonghyun to see the light tank fitted inside. He chuckles softly at the way Jonghyun’s brows raise. It’s not nearly as impressive as it looks. It only has enough air for an hour at most and sometimes he forgets it’s in there and takes it off and just rips his own air supply away from himself. He still likes it though. Jonghyun watches him fit it back neatly over his hair with a tiny smile. “You really like your whole earth cowboy aesthetic, don't you?” he asks.

“I watched a lot of movies when I was little, partner,” Minho winks in reply. He’s about six generations away from Earth but his grandparents had a lot of old shit saved from their grandparents’ grandparents or something. He’s guessing Earth history isn’t as lost in Earth outposts in Earth’s galaxy as they are here, which is why Jonghyun recognized the look so easily. Jonghyun’s gaze shifts from him to his pasture and he walks forward to lean up on the fence.

“How’d you get Earth cows all the way out here?” he asks incredulously. Minho turns to watch them also.

“They’re not Earth cows,” he says. “They’re space cows.”

“What?” Jonghyun asks. When Minho looks at him, his eyes look genuinely baffled. “Those are literally Earth cows.”

“Are not,” Minho replies. He would know what kind of cows his cows are.

“Those are exactly the same as cows from Earth,” Jonghyun frowns. “There is no difference.”

“Uh, yes there is? They don’t need oxygen.”

“Why do they have an oxygen _dome_ then?”

“It’s not an oxygen dome; it’s a night dome. Because of the two suns. It’s dark in there so they can sleep.”

“I don’t believe you.” Jonghyun crosses his arms and taps his foot, and from the top of his face that Minho can see, he looks grumpy and petulant. He crosses his arms back and gives Jonghyun a look that means he’s serious. Jonghyun huffs. “You can’t tell me,” he starts, “that space cows are exactly fucking identical to Earth cows except they don’t need oxygen.”

“I mean, I can,” Minho says. “Because they are.” He thought this was common knowledge. All the other space versions of Earth animals, if they exist, are definitely alien and different, but space cows are just. Cows. In space.

“How?” Jonghyun asks flatly. Minho shrugs.

“Space is fucked up,” he says. Jonghyun continues squinting at him for a moment, then shrugs and unfolds his arms.

“Can’t argue with that,” he says. He stuffs his hands in his pockets, looks around, takes his hands out and straights his jacket again. “Anyway,” he says, looking back at Minho. “You’re cute. Wanna explore the cosmos and shit with me? I have a galaxy dancer and a moon singer friend waiting for me to meet up with them somewhere in the Polaris galaxy.” He gestures over his shoulder with his thumb at his bike; Minho cocks a brow. Someone is forward.

If he’s being honest with himself, though, Minho kind of wants to go. He’s been wanting a vacation from his simple space cowherd life lately. He was just gonna take a week off to that one resort planet like usual, but an actual startrip sounds fun. And Jonghyun is cute also. Minho can’t see his mouth, but the corners of his eyes crinkle in what has to be a smile. He tips his hat up more and glances back at his space herd with a sigh. He has the milk people coming tomorrow for his weekly supply.

“Can you come back in like, a few weeks?” he asks. “If I’m gonna take a vacation I need to call my bro so he can take care of my space cows while I’m gone.” And he needs to pack and shit. Jonghyun looks up at the sky for a moment; then he shrugs and nods.

“Yeah, sure,” he says. “Mind if I register your coordinates?” He taps the screen of his bike awake to chart Minho on his map. Minho copies his shrug.

“Go ahead,” he says. “And, hey, I have this friend Key in the town over there, on that third asteroid away from the big asteroid, see?” He points off in the distance, where if he squints, he can follow the line of the belt all the way to the opposite end where the town is. Jonghyun nods after a few seconds of squinting himself. “Star pronouns, and star works at the space plant store next to the bookstore. Star’s always going on about, like, reaching the corners of the galaxies and shit. Star would probably go with you tonight.” He shrugs. Kibum will help Jonghyun figure out his directions and Jonghyun can get Kibum to stop whining at Minho about not having anyone cool enough to go exploring with.

“Hmm. Thanks,” Jonghyun says. He reaches for Minho’s hand to shake for real this time. Minho smiles as he takes it.

“See you around, then,” he says. Jonghyun nods with a deeper crinkle of his eyes.

“Later, space cowboy.” He gets back onto his bike, revs the engine, roars down Minho’s driveway, and then gently lifts into the air with neon blue trailing behind him. He rides off into the sunset in the most cliché space western way with a wave over his shoulder before pulling a sharp turn to head towards the town. Minho chuckles at the performance. He likes Jonghyun.


End file.
